SpaceX aims for pre-dawn launch to the space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - A SpaceX rocket stands poised at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a pre-dawn flight to the International Space Station.

The unmanned Dragon capsule contains more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments ordered up by NASA. That's the primary objective for SpaceX.

But the California-based company will attempt an even more extraordinary feat once the Dragon is on its way: flying the booster rocket to a platform in the Atlantic. No one has ever pulled off such a touchdown.

SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk figures there's a 50-50 chance, at best, that the first-stage booster will land on the platform that's stationed a couple hundred miles off the northeastern Florida coast. He says recovering and reusing rockets could speed up launches and drive down costs.